


Colors

by roguefaerie (samidha)



Category: Original Work
Genre: 1970s, Adapt, Boston, Coming of Age, Fandom Trumps Hate, Fandom Trumps Hate 2019, Gen, Librarians, Libraries, Neighborhoods, Neurodiversity, News Media, Newspapers, Public Transportation, Synesthesia, TV News, accessibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 18:11:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19382038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: Antonio knows that he is different.





	Colors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tigerbright](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigerbright/gifts).



> With many thanks to my beta. :)

Antonio hears the stories of people in wheelchairs chaining themselves to buses. He isn’t sure when he heard it the first time, but he thinks _better them than me_ , and it’s true in more ways than one. Some people can have an orderly experience with a police officer and some people can’t. 

Antonio hides in plain sight. Some people wouldn’t even know why he follows that sort of news, but his mama knows how he sees colors when other people don’t, and whatever else there is that no white doctor is going to look too hard to find out about him.

His mama starts his love of reading when she gives him a few really colorful books for his birthday, and then helps him sign up for a library card. When she works late, he sits in a corner of the library and tries not to draw too much attention, just like everywhere.

The Boston Library is worth knowing about, and it’s easy to get lost in, but he goes to the smaller branch closer to his house whenever he can. Whenever he can.

He thinks often of how he tries to blend in and it’s easier closer to home. It’s easier where the neighbors know his name and naturally extend him a hand. They know he’s a mama’s boy, but they don’t ask any questions past that, they just help him out.

He feels at home with Mama’s friends, and inside of books, where he isn’t small and doesn’t have to be. Maybe he doesn’t have as many as he dreams of at home, but he likes the library anyway.

Besides books, the library has newspapers, and he reads them to keep up on news and learns to read between the lines.

He even makes friends at the library, which he is never expecting to do. At first it’s just the adults being friendly to him, but over time he learns who comes there often and who’ll listen to him when he talks. It’s other kids with books under their arm, and once or twice he meets them by the microfiche. 

Antonio knows he’s not like other kids who like sports, but books are peaceful and comforting so they’re worth it to him. The friends he meets understand this and that’s good enough for him.

He tells them a few times when he catches the news that someone else crawled up the steps of a building as big as the big library in the middle of the city, but he’s always nervous when he does it. He knows it’s important for people to be able to get where they need to go, and people should know. He also knows he’s different, but not everyone needs to know. Still, his library friends are okay people to tell, he’s pretty sure.

They only meet at the library and not at school, maybe because they’re small.

But Antonio knows the news. He likes the news. Some of it, anyway, the important pieces, almost as much as books.

The librarian at his smaller library is the one who teaches him all about microfiche and shows him the stories she thinks he’s going to like, and they talk about being different and how some people crawl up steps when they can’t get in somewhere.

“One day,” the librarian says, “It’s going to be different and I bet you’re going to see it, Antonio.”

“Cool!” he says, and then he blinks and makes himself look smaller and whispers, “Cool.”

The librarian smiles.

Some of the kids Antonio meets at the library stay his friends. They remember meeting in the corner near where the news was kept, and something tells Antonio they’re always going to be able to find each other in their neighborhood. People who love books can always find each other. 

When he thinks about it, Tiana is the first one he remembers becoming his friend among the stacks and after that they always know each other, even after they stop seeing each other at the library. They make a point of it, just like him and a few of the others, and it becomes an unspoken point to stay in touch well into adulthood. They're a whole neighborhood of kids connected by one central hub.

And one day, it does get better, at least when it comes to public transportation, and Antonio is there to see it. By the time it does, some other things may be worse and he doesn’t know where the librarians went onto in life, but he knows who he is and so do his friends, and when he’s there to see it all he remembers who taught him he would be.


End file.
